Santa Rosa Junior College will offer the course Introduction to Homeland Security at the Public Safety Training Center this summer. The center will be one of the first in the California Community College system to offer classes in this field.

Introduction to Homeland Security will cover basic topics involved with homeland security through a mixture of lecture and hands-on learning. According to the course outline, students will learn about the different threats, security strategies and laws involved in the field. Employment positions available in the field will also be covered.

Brian Marvin took charge of the coordination for the course and creation of the class schedule. Marvin has worked at the Public Safety Training Center for two years as the director of both the Ranger Academy and Modular Police Academy after a 28-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard. During this time, Marvin noticed that there was a lot of training in local and regional positions but no courses exploring jobs on the federal level.

“I started to explore the idea of trying to get a course here that would introduce students to more federal, national-level jobs, many of which are available in the Bay Area,” Marvin said.

According to Marvin, different adjunct faculty members knowledgeable on the topics covered will teach the class.

The three-unit class is open to all students, with the minimum prerequisite being eligibility for English 100 or ESL 100. Marvin said he expects a mixture of students to enroll in the class, ranging from students majoring in administration of justice, working police officers and firefighters to curious students interested in the course.